هو لاعب كرة قدم.

• هو = he
• لاعب = player
• كرة قدم = football / soccer

So the whole sentence means He is a football player or He is a soccer player.

In Arabic, the verb to be is usually not written or spoken in the present tense in sentences like this.

So:

• هو لاعب كرة قدم = He is a football player

But in the past or future, Arabic does use a verb:

• كان لاعب كرة قدم = He was a football player
• سيكون لاعب كرة قدم = He will be a football player

This kind of present-tense sentence is very normal in Arabic.

This is a nominal sentence in Arabic.

• هو is the subject pronoun
• لاعب كرة قدم is the predicate, telling you what he is

So the structure is basically:

• he + football player

Arabic does this very often in the present tense.

Arabic does not have a separate word for a / an.

Instead, indefiniteness is usually shown by the form of the noun or by context.

So لاعب كرة قدم means a football player, even though there is no separate word for a.

Because Arabic often uses an iḍāfa construction, which is a noun-to-noun structure.

Here it works like this:

• لاعب = player
• كرة قدم = football

So لاعب كرة قدم literally feels like player of football.

This is a very common Arabic way to build phrases that English often expresses with adjectives or compound nouns.

In a fully vocalized text, a learner might expect something like لاعبٌ for a player. But here لاعب is the first part of an iḍāfa construction, and the first noun in iḍāfa:

• does not take الـ
• does not take tanwīn

So:

• لاعب كرة قدم = a football player

Even without الـ or tanwīn on لاعب, the phrase is still correct.

Literally:

• كرة = ball
• قدم = foot

So the literal idea is foot-ball, which matches English very closely.

In Arabic, كرة القدم is the standard name of the sport football / soccer.

It usually means soccer.

For a native English speaker, the safest understanding is:

• كرة قدم / كرة القدم = soccer

If you need to say American football, Arabic normally says:

• كرة القدم الأمريكية

So in this sentence, the meaning is He is a soccer player.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

huwa lāʿib kurat qadam

A more fully vocalized formal version is:

هُوَ لاعِبُ كُرَةِ قَدَمٍ

One important point: the ʿ in lāʿib represents the Arabic letter ع, which does not have an exact English equivalent.

Yes, you may see that too.

• كرة القدم is the full standard expression for football / soccer
• لاعب كرة قدم is also very common, especially as a profession label

In very strict grammar, لاعب كرة القدم is more definite, while لاعب كرة قدم fits a football player more neatly. But in real modern usage, both can appear.

For a beginner, هو لاعب كرة قدم is an excellent sentence to learn.

You would say:

هي لاعبة كرة قدم

Changes:

• هو becomes هي = she
• لاعب becomes لاعبة, the feminine form

So:

• هو لاعب كرة قدم = He is a football player
• هي لاعبة كرة قدم = She is a football player